rickey



UNITED STATES PATEN FFQE.

JOHN G. RIOKEY, OE NEW CUMBERLAND, OHIO.

MODE 0F LOCKING SLEDS OR SLEIGI-IS.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 2,721, dated July 16, 1842.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, JOHN G. RIOKEY, of New Cumberland, in the county of Tuscarawas and State of Ohio, have invented a new and Improved Mode of Looking Sleds and Sleighs; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description.

The nature of my invention consists in providing a lever to be applied to each runner of the sled or sleigh, so as to check it when going down hill from running forward and when going up hill from running back and when the roads are sideling and icy to keep it from running sidewise.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my invention I will proceed to de scribe its construction and operation: I construct my sled or sleigh in any of the known forms and apply thereto cast or wrought iron shoes and all the other appendages common to sleds or sleighs and in addition thereto about two and a half feet from the hind end of the shoe and runner I make a mortise through both about three-quarters of an inch wide and about five inches long each side of which mortise on the shoe. I have a piece of metal or iron to extend up- Ward about two inches wide and about ten inches long thus forming a box which is to be let up into the runner as shown at A, in the accompanying drawings; and in this mortise I insert a lever of wrought iron, or iron and steel which will work on a pivot through the center of the box at A, lengthwise and about one and a half inches from the bottom of the shoe which lever will extend to the fender of the sled or sleigh at B. I put a similar lever in each runner and connect them at the fender by a cross bar that will extend from one side of the sled or sleigh to the other. This cross-bar is to play back and forward in an iron staple or guard that I screw to the under side of the fender so as to prevent the lever from being thrown back or forward beyond the distance required. The cross-bar may be made either of wood or iron so that there is an iron bolt at each end of the cross-bar which goes through an oblong hole in the upper end of the lever at B, and is there fastened with a screw or otherwise. In the middle of this crossbar I put a center bar that will extend under the bench of the sled or sleigh to the front end of the box of the same at G, and in the front end of this center bar I put a hand lever that stands up at the front end of the box of the sled or sleigh by which both the aforementioned levers marked 1, will be operated on at the same time, and when thrown either back or forward there will be one corner projecting through the mortise in the shoe at A, thereby raising the surface of the shoe and consequently keeping the sled or sleigh from running sidewise or either back or forward as occasion may require. And in order that the levers may not be an obstruction only when necessary I attach a springat D, to the bench of the sled or sleigh the end of which passes through the centerbar and keeps the levers all perpendicular only when there is force applied to the hand lever. And further to prevent an obstruction of the levers I put a collar on lever 1 as represented at E, which I fasten with a screw bolt that works through an oblong hole in the lever and thus keeps the mortise in the runner in which the lever plays covered so as to prevent the snow, &c., from filling said mortise.

What I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent is The application to sleds and sleighs of levers which will operate on the same by projecting below the surface of the shoe and thus preventit from running sidewise, or either back or forward as occasion may require by attaching said levers to the sled or sleigh in the manner above described or in any other way that will produce the same effect.

J OHN C. RIGKEY.

F. E. CHARLES. 

